For the past four months, the Independent Redistricting Commission has worked to balance the wants, needs and desires of the residents of Arizona. The problem is that Pinal County — Arizona’s fastest growing county — is being used as the bargaining chip to satisfy other constituencies.

Slumping housing prices and the prevelance of service-industry jobs contributed to Phoenix and Tucson trailing the rest of the Intermountain West in economic recovery during the second quarter, according to a Brookings Institution report.